Simon Lelic - The Child Who

He turned to Megan, who was peering now across his shoulder. ‘Meg?’ he said and stepped into the room. ‘There’s nothing in here.’

Megan continued looking. ‘That’s what I said.’ She did not, though, sound convinced.

Leo spread his arms and glanced about. There was just the sofa, the television, the piles here and there of everyday clutter. The only thing amiss was that the curtains, like those in the rest of the house, would normally by now have been drawn. The bay, with the light on, was a span of impenetrable blackness. Leo moved to cover it.

‘Leo!’

He stopped halfway to the window. ‘What? I was just going to—’

‘Don’t. Leave it. Can we… Let’s go back into the kitchen.’ Megan waited for Leo to follow her.

‘Megan. Honestly. What on earth are you so frightened of?’ Now it was Leo who sounded uncertain. He looked again at the window.

Megan raised her cigarette but it had burnt already to the filter. She looked for somewhere to dispose of it and settled on the soil beneath the Kentia palm beside the door. When she unbent she folded her arms.

‘There was a man.’ She spoke across Leo’s shoulder. ‘There. At the window.’ She shuddered and wrapped herself tighter.

‘A man?’ Leo looked where his wife was looking. ‘I don’t understand. What man?’

‘I don’t know what man! Just a man! Staring at me! Pressed against the glass and… and… leering!’

‘Leering?’

‘Leo, don’t!’

He had started again towards the window and this time he made it across the room. He pressed his face to the glass. ‘There’s no one out there, Meg. There’s no one there.’

‘Of course there’s no one there! He’s hardly going to sit around waiting for you to come home!’ She sniffed. ‘He’d be there all night.’

‘What was he doing?’ Leo said. ‘What did he want?’

‘It completely slipped my mind to ask,’ Megan said, sounding dangerously reasonable. ‘Maybe he just needed directions. Maybe he got lost delivering pizza.’

‘What? You think he was just—’

‘No!’

The word pealed. It took an age, it felt like, to fade.

‘He was in the bushes, Leo. In the dark, at the back of the house.’

Leo struggled for something to say but before he could settle on the words his wife, without warning, left the room. He trailed her back towards the kitchen.

‘Meg? What then? He was looking at you. “Leering,” you said. As in…’

Watching.

Leo stopped short at the threshold

I am watching. You will be judged by your lies .

Leo felt a tightening in his gut. Ellie. He thought again of Ellie. ‘Meg, wait. Ellie. Are you certain she’s at Sophie’s house? You said you didn’t speak to her. How do you know she was definitely there?’

Megan had a hand on her cigarettes. ‘What? What are you talking about?’

‘Ellie. If you didn’t speak to her, how do you know—’

‘I spoke to Sophie’s mother. She’s not going to lie to me, Leo.’

‘I’ll go and get her.’ Leo patted his pockets, checked about him for the car keys. ‘Shall I?’ But Megan. The man at the window. Fetching Ellie would mean leaving Megan on her own.

‘They’ll bring her over, Leo. Sophie’s father will, after dinner. Don’t you dare leave me here on my own.’

‘No. No,’ Leo said again. ‘Of course not.’

‘Leo?’ Megan was studying him. ‘What is it? Why are you suddenly acting so strangely?’

‘What? I’m not.’ Except: the notes. He should tell her about the notes. Shouldn’t he? A man at their living-room window, ground-up glass with the most recent note. Leo looked at his bandaged finger. It still hurt when he tried to bend it but the pain, apart from that, was fading.

He covered the injury with his other hand. By the sackload. Isn’t that what Dale had said? And if he told Meg while she was in this state – if he told her, actually, any time at all – there was no question she would insist he drop the case. And he couldn’t. He just could not.

Besides. A man at the window. It could have been anyone, no one.

‘Tell me again,’ he said to Megan. ‘The man. At the window. Did you see his face? What did he look like?’

‘He had a beard,’ Megan said. ‘He seemed big but maybe just because he was standing so close to the glass.’ She shivered, shook it off. ‘And his eyes were…’ She narrowed hers. ‘Bright. Light, I think.’ She made a gesture: that’s all. Rather: that’s enough.

‘But… You said it was dark. Didn’t you? How did you see him if—’

‘I’m not lying, Leo! I’m not making things up!’

Leo raised his hands. ‘I didn’t say you were. I’m just trying to understand, that’s all.’

‘He was smiling at me, Leo. Like he was gloating. Like me seeing him, being frightened by him, was the point.’

There was a rhythm in Leo’s chest and he breathed to try to settle it. ‘And then? What happened then?’

‘Then? Then he went,’ Megan said, her expression fierce. ‘Down the passageway, I assume.’ She looked at her wine glass on the counter. ‘I ran around checking all the windows, all the doors, but everything was locked. After that I shut the curtains. But that was worse, somehow, so I opened them again.’

‘And turned on the lights.’

Megan did not answer.

‘What about after that? Did you see him again after that?’

‘No. I didn’t. The first time was enough, I promise you.’

‘But you didn’t call the police? Why did you not call the police?’

‘I thought about it. I called your office instead. No one seemed to know where you were.’ She tipped her head. ‘Where were you, Leo? Were you with him ?’

‘I… I should get a mobile,’ Leo answered, to distract her. ‘They’re expensive but if it means you’re more at ease. That you’re able to contact me in… When there’s an…’ He did not want to say the word.

Megan made a noise: something between a scoff and a sigh. ‘It was hardly an emergency, Leo.’

He looked at his wife in surprise.

‘I was scared,’ she said. ‘Probably he was just… just some…’ She shook her head. ‘I was on edge. After arguing with Ellie, after not knowing where you’d gone. And, anyway, there’s a less expensive solution. If you’re so worried about cost, I mean. If you’re worried about putting me at ease.’

And here it came. Exactly as Leo had predicted. Was this, really, what this whole thing was all about?

‘We’ve discussed this, Meg.’

‘No, Leo, we haven’t. Not properly.’

‘We’ve said all we need to. Don’t you think? I know how you feel, you know how I feel. At the end of the day, it’s my decision. I’m not going to be swayed just because you… because of some…’ He gestured loosely towards the living room.

‘ Your decision?’ Megan seemed to wrestle for a moment with her fury. She closed her eyes and clasped her forehead. ‘Can’t you see?’ she said at last. ‘Don’t you realise how this is hurting us? You, me. Ellie above all. And why? For some evil little…’ She shook her head in lieu of the noun.

‘Evil? How do you know he’s evil? Christ, Meg, you haven’t even met him!’

‘I don’t want to meet him! That’s the last thing I would want to do! And what’s evil, Leo, if not what he did? What’s evil if not him ?’

Leo directed his disgust towards the floor. ‘You don’t understand,’ he said. ‘You can’t possibly understand.’

‘I understand perfectly. Better than you do, clearly.’

‘Meaning what exactly?’

‘Meaning why you’re doing this. Meaning what it is you’re trying to prove!’

‘Trying to prove? The only thing I’m trying to prove is that this boy – this child – needs help, not a life in prison.’ Leo shook his head, forgetting for an instant that he was in the middle of an argument. ‘You should meet Daniel’s parents, Meg. In their way they’re as messed up as he is. I mean, it’s no wonder, when you think about it, that—’